Chicago City Wire

Despite a massive shortage of police in Chicago, former Chicago Police Department Officer Jimmy K told Chicago’s Morning Answer that he and more than 100 others would like to return to the force but are being held back.

The officer – a five year veteran of the CPD – said he fled the city due to poor leadership and is currently working in a suburban police department, where he has been working for a year.

“So there's no straight answer on why I can't go back or my friends as well. I, I personally know 106 officers that have left CPD and are trying to go back. That's a lot,” he said on the radio show.

Jimmy said the CPD has not taken movement on his application or his fellow former officers, who he said have between two and 20 years experience on the force, to return to the CPD or the others who are interested. He speculated that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is not rehiring the officers because they have the backing of the Fraternal Order of Police.

“In addition to perhaps not really wanting or begrudgingly having to hire more cops at some point, she certainly doesn't want to do it now and upset the delicate balance of the Black Lives Matter folks and the lakefront leftists who've been brainwashed into believing the police are the enemy and so forth," Jimmy said. "I mean, that's who she needs. If she has a big splash of hiring 106 officers, then she's going to upset some parts of her constituency, I suspect."  

Jimmy said he initially left the department because he felt leadership held officers back from properly doing their jobs in 2020 amid rolling riots. 

“The call volume was insanity," he said. "We weren't even responding to calls; lootings were happening left and right. At the end of the day, we were never told to stand down. It was more so listening to the radio officers calling for help. I got to that area to back them up, and let's keep each other safe. And that's all it was. The radio was blaring what the right officers called 10 words, in an emergency, it was just running around the whole city, just backing each other up. And we couldn't respond to calls. We couldn't take action for the crime happening in front of us because we had to back each other.”

Jimmy, whose father was also a CPD officer, said he just wants to return home as a police officer now.

“I grew up here on the far northwest side," he said. "I think it just has a lot of greater significance for kids in the big city compared to anywhere else, whether it's working in the neighborhood around where you grew up or, you know, the historic downtown.

“It carries a lot of substance to it. I'm just working in Chicago. I think the Chicago police probably has the greatest camaraderie, along with the patrol officers. Not a big fan of the command staff, or the mayor. But definitely, you know, when you're working the B car with your coworkers and you're going to some of these hectic calls for service, you trust each other, you want to back each other up. And I am confident to say that, you know, the CPD has the greatest camaraderie among the B car.”

Jimmy also said he believes Fraternal Order of Police head John Catanzara has been a political thorn in Lightfoot’s side.

“She does not like him at all, not at all,” Jimmy said. “Maybe that's another reason and factor of why the rehire proposals being ignored by the union be helpful. And they're the ones who won. We've spoken to the unions. They're the ones who came up with this rehire program after they realized so many guys and gals want to come back to the department.”

The police shortage in Chicago is noted. The city currently has 11,710 officers on the street, a decline of 1,640 since 2019.

Paul Vallas, a candidate for mayor, noted the problem in terms of response to 911 calls.

“Last year, there were 400,000 high priority 911 calls that they did not have a police car to respond to,” Vallas said, according to WGN. “That’s half of all the 911 calls that year.”

The Chicago Police Department shot back, noting, “Mayor Lightfoot’s Safer Chicago Plan is working,” and bad-mouthing Catanzara and implying Vallas and the FOP are working together.

Catanzara has been the brunt of some of Lightfoot’s nastier moments in office. She called him a “racist” and “misogynist” after he successfully led an effort against the city’s vaccine mandate. The FOP president teased a mayoral run but ultimately decided not to challenge Lightfoot.

“If people don't understand that, that drives everything that goes on in this city," Catanzara told Chicago City Wire. "Tax revenue, people fleeing the city, everything around it comes from public safety and perception. You lost downtown more than it's ever been lost before. And I'm not sure what you do to get it back at this point without a wholesale change at the top of the police department and the political structure in the city.”

Lightfoot recently took criticism for grandstanding during a recent street performance.

“Since @chicagosmayor's term began, Chicago has suffered 2,278 homicides and over 9,000 shot,” the Chicago Contrarian posted on Twitter. “Since January 1, the city has endured 41 homicides and 194 shot. Yet here Lightfoot is blissfully dancing and asking voters to return her to office. Lightfoot is detached from reality.”

The move came after a CPD report was released finding Chicago’s elevated crime rates are remaining high into 2023.

So far this year, there have been 32 murders, 113 criminal sexual assaults, 648 robberies. 348 incidents of violent assault, 489 burglaries, 1,045 thefts and 2,169 thefts of motor vehicles.